If every MTC production were cast, acted and directed as securely as The Distance, we'd be laughing.

By Cameron Woodhead

UpdatedMarch 11, 2016 — 10.57amfirst published at 9.55am

THEATRE THE DISTANCE ★★★★ Melbourne Theatre Company Sumner Theatre, Southbank Until April 9

The Melbourne Theatre Company had a marvellous start to the year with its sold-out season of Ladies in Black. This lively production of Deborah Bruce's The Distance should put bums on seats too.

The ensemble acting in MTC's The Distance is spot on.Credit:Jeff Busby

It's a play that tempts you to invoke Ibsen's A Doll's House: like Nora Helmer, the central figure abandons her family. Obvious similarities end there. Unlike Nora, Bea (Susan Prior) has made her decision from the start: she hates the drudgery of motherhood, doesn't possess a shred of maternal instinct for her children, and feels her very identity under siege.

So she makes an agonising choice and flies back to England for good, leaving her husband and two young sons in Australia.

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Bea seeks solace among old friends, but Kate (Nadine Garner), a well-meaning control-freak who underwent IVF for eight years to have her baby, and Alex (Katrina Milosevic) loose cannon and single mother, can't help but judge her. After all, what sort of mother doesn't love her children?

Although The Distance toys with powerful myths and double standards that cling to motherhood, it derives most of its drama and humour from the intimate textures of female friendship. The ensemble acting is spot on in that respect, and it's a joy to see three mature female characters so vividly brought to life.

Milosevic, in particular, is very funny, but the whole cast acts well, and Leticia Caceres' direction remains shrewd, eschewing the social tragedy and cap-R Realism of Ibsen and allowing the sharply observed typologies of this dramedy to flow.

The play's male characters do play second fiddle to the women, but Ben Prendergast, as a rock musician mellowed by age, and Nathan Page, as his rough diamond of a brother, ensure they're not cardboard cut-outs. And Joe Klocek puts in a radiant performance as Alex's adolescent son.

Opening night was briefly derailed by a technical hitch that had the stage steeped in darkness for a whole scene: the actors handled it with same confidence and class that makes this such an enjoyable evening of commercial theatre. If every MTC production were cast, acted and directed so securely, we'd be laughing.